y of the week to say some particular prayers and psalms,
and unite himself in spirit with his brethren beyond seas. And then he
tried to remember the last Sunday; and the more he thought, the less he
could remember it, till he began to think that months had gone without a
Sunday. This he was certain of, that he had lost reckoning, for he had
made no notches for the days for a long while past, and unless his slave
Asper knew, there was no one to tell him. Here he got so puzzled, that it
was like one of the bad dreams which had worried him. He felt it affect
his head, and he was obliged to give up the inquiry.

From this time his sleep was better and more refreshing for several days;
he was more collected when he was awake, and was able to ask himself why
he lay there, and what had happened to him. Then gradually his memory
began to return like the dawning of the day; the cause and the
circumstances of his recent visit to the city, point after point came up,
and he felt first wonder, and then certainty. He recollected the Forum,
and then the edict; a solemn, overpowering emotion here seized him, and
for a while he dared not think more. When he recovered, and tried to
pursue the events of the day, he found himself unequal to the task; all
was dark, except that he had some vague remembrance of thirsting, and some
one giving him to drink, and then his saying with the Psalmist,
"Transivimus per ignem et aquam."

He opened his eyes and looked about him. He was at home. There was some
one at the bed-head whom he could not see hanging over him, and he was too
weak to raise himself and so command a view of him. He waited patiently,
being too feeble to have any great anxiety on the subject. Presently a
voice addressed him: "You are recovering, my son," it said.

"Who are _you_?" said Agellius abruptly. The person spoken to applied his
mouth to Agellius's ear, and uttered lowly several sacred names.

Agellius would have started up had he been strong enough; he could but
sink down upon his rushes in agitation.

"Be content to know no more at present," said the stranger, "praise God,
as I do. You know enough for your present strength. It is your act of
obedience for the day."

It was a deep, clear, peaceful, authoritative voice. In his present state,
as we have said, it cost Agellius no great effort to mortify curiosity;
and the accents of that voice soothed him, and the mystery employed his
mind, and had something pleasing and